He was known on local radio back in its early days, dated a pretty blonde from the University of South Florida who would become world famous model-actress Lauren Hutton, and met his last wife 37 years before he eventually married her.

Small wonder friends, family and former radio colleagues now remember former WMNF-FM, WFLA-AM and WDAE-AM radio host Pat Chamburs as a free spirit who lived an expansive life.

Chambers died Sunday of complications from Parkinson's disease at age 84. He had hosted a jazz show on Wednesdays for WMNF called Jazz and Jive, for more than 20 years, starting in 1983 and ending in 2005 when traffic on I-275 got to be too much.

"It was great to have him, because he was somebody who had lived through the music," said WMNF program director Randy Wynne. "Pat experienced it all first hand and he remained the eternal hipster. His show was hip for people of all ages."

Born and raised in Clearwater, Chamburs lost a leg in World War II before returning to his hometown in the 1950s and working in the area's early radio industry at WFLA and WDAE.

After meeting Hutton at the University of South Florida (back when she was named Mary Hall), he traveled some more before settling back in the Tampa Bay area in the early 1980s, eventually starting his radio show with a CD collection reportedly at about 5,000 discs. He married current wife Grace Klein Chamburs in 1998, after first meeting her at the University of Tampa in 1961.

He is survived by Grace Chamburs, eight children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. 

Former St. Petersburg Times writer Jacquin Sanders wrote a compelling piece about Chamburs here.

Staffers at WMNF have not yet decided how they will pay tribute to Chamburs, Wynne said. His family asks the public to send any donations to the Hospice of Florida Suncoast; there is no public funeral planned.